SAP® Business One: Real-Time Manufacturing

Job Cost and Shop Floor Control

The Job Cost & Shop Floor Control module is a thorough melding of a comprehensive job costing, job management, and shop floor control system. All this versatility provides creation, tracking and auditing of single and multi-level work orders to any level of detail desired. Obtain up-to-the minute exception reporting and cost analysis for any work center or operation exceeding its estimated hours or dollars, and drill down to the transactions causing the missed estimates.

BENEFITS

• Control costs, profitability, and resources.
• Obtain accurate overhead calculations.
• Gain instant access to cost, materials, and labor data on any job.
• Generate work in progress reports easily.
• Store job histories for future quoting.
• Perform simple, up-to-date billing against jobs.
• Improve response to customers
• Access the latest efficiency data for improved decisions.
• Flag underestimated and delinquent jobs.
• Track total job costs over the life of a job.
• Verify customer delivery dates upon release of a job.
• Understand the effects of rush jobs on the shop.
• Manipulate the job schedule.

FEATURES

Make-to-Order/Make-to-Stock
Create make to order work orders and tie them to sales orders. The sales order can drive the work order creation, or work orders can be tied to existing sales orders. Alternatively, make to stock work orders can be created to produce inventory.

Work Order Cost Analysis
Review up to date cost analysis by comparing estimated to actual costs on labor, material, outside services, purchases and more. It's easy to access the hours and costs by operation or work center. Use the 'drill down' function to review estimated and actual costs from the work order level, to the work order line, to the work order operation, to the detailed cost transaction, and to the costs within the general ledger distribution. The drill down shows the item piece counts as well as the hours and the costs.

Routers
Routers define the 'steps' or operations required to create a product. Operations can be identified as one of six types: Direct labor; Indirect Labor; Other costs; Purchased services; Purchased materials; and Inventory issues.

• Direct labor: Costs are estimated based on item quantity required, hours / piece or pieces / hour, crew size, setup time, standard manufacturing quantity and scrap percentage. Actual costs are captured from entry of hours worked and quantities produced.
• Indirect labor: Costs are estimated based on hours required.
• Other costs: Costs are estimated based on entry of the cost.
• Purchased services: Costs are estimated based on the cost per piece for the service. Multiple vendors can be used for estimates, with different costs per piece for each vendor.
• Purchased materials: Costs are estimated based on the cost per piece for each non-inventory material required for this operation.
• Inventory issues: Costs come from the inventory system. Items required are derived from the bill of material or are dragged in from the inventory file via a 'Pull list'.

Standardized Routers
Standardized routers are used to specify manufacturing processes, sequences, and work centers by item or type of item. Modify the router to work order requirements any time during the job to update operations and estimates. When creating new jobs, import routers from: standard item routers; standard item type routers; quote routers; or previously used work order routers.

Process/Router Sheet
Send the list of procedures used to make the manufactured part(s) with the job as it travels on the shop floor. Include detail remarks to specify quality information, special tool requirements, and unique process instructions. On line documents can be attached to the work order. This provides the ability to attach CAD drawings, engineering drawings, PDF files, or photos to a work order and have this information available on-line from any workstation with access to MICROSHOP.

Job Remarks
Attach unlimited remarks to the work order header and each operation line. Add remarks to transactions entered - including during time ticket entry, to reflect ideas and/or problems from the operator or group leader for future analysis.

Exception Report Analysis
Monitor potential delinquencies and overruns by hours or dollars with this dynamic reporting feature.

Material Management
Create material requirements automatically using a standard bill of materials or via a 'pull list' of inventoried items. Routers can have 'exceptions' to the standard bill of material. Bills of material creation can be accessed directly while creating routers.

Commit/Uncommit Material
Materials can be committed to the job at the time of job creation or via a 'commit' materials function. The commit materials function would be used to commit material to a job at appropriate stages of the job.

Parent Work Orders
Any work order can have a 'Parent Work Order'. This provides the ability to group multiple work orders under a single parent and report total costs for all of the work orders in this group. This parent - child work order relationship can be used to form single level or 'indented' work order groups. For instance, a work order for a large capital equipment project may 'spawn' multiple 'child' work orders for sub-assemblies required for the full work order. These sub-assemblies may in turn spawn child work orders. Estimated and actual costs can be reviewed at the parent or the child work order levels.

Life Cycle Job Cost
Track engineering changes and the separate costs of components and subassemblies, or do blanket orders for time and material, all while rolling costs up to any level. This functionality is ideal for shops that make assemblies and components to order. Analyze costs at any work order detail, and justify cost overruns cost by customer engineering changes. Track costs of activities for the life of a job - from engineering, to fabrication, to installation, to warranty work, and to service.

Work Order Numbers
Work order numbers are generated sequentially by the system. Each work order can have unlimited 'lines' to define associated work orders for the same customer. The actual work order is a combination of the work order number and the line number. Each work order 'line' can be associated with a separate inventory item requirement.

Burden Rates
Define and track costs for two burden rates for each work center. Burden rates can be separated for direct labor and setup labor.

Work Order Costs
Costs are applied to the work order as the cost transactions are entered. This means that all cost reports are as up to date as the latest transactions entered.

Historical Work Order Analysis
Access historical work orders to compare estimated to actual costs. Retrieve work orders by numerous search methods including by customer, item, or item type. Complete drill down by work order to the general ledger is provided.

Time Ticket Entry
Set up the screen to accept elapsed time entry or start/end time entry. Track completed and scrapped parts. Add operations to the router to handle in process changes.

Material Requirements Projections
Easily review the material requirements for open jobs. Review the items required and use a 'check' box to indicate which materials to generate PO 's. Then, have the system create the PO 's. An approval process can be used to monitor PO 's created.

"What if" Job Scheduling
Use the scheduling module to schedule a single work order to see how it fits into the existing schedule, without having to regenerate the entire shop schedule.

"Same-as-Except" Routers
Quickly create a new router from an existing list with the import feature. Make any modifications you need to the new copy and save it separately from the original router.

INTERFACES

• Accounts payable
• Bar code data collection
• Bill of materials
• General ledger
• Inventory
• Order processing
• Purchase orders
• Quoting and estimating
• Sales analysis
• Scheduling

REPORTS

• Work order process sheet
• Material requirements report
• Material purchasing reports
• Work order cost report by cost type
• Material pick ticket print
• Material shortage report
• Work order completion report
• Delayed work order report
• Work order cost report
• Indented work order report
• Work order profit/loss report
• Work center utilization report
• Employee labor report
• Cost of goods report
• Work in process report
• Work order scrap report

INQUIRIES

• Inquiries can be generated by users and added to the menus.
• Work order cost inquiry drill down
• Parent work order actual and estimated costs
• Work order actual and estimated costs
• Work order line actual and estimated costs
• Work order line operations actual and estimated costs
• Work order detail transactions - actual costs
• G/L transactions for each work order detail transaction.
• Work center usage history inquiry.

Production Scheduling

The Scheduling module provides management the tools to evaluate and manage the shop's existing resources, including machine capacity and human resources. A choice of scheduling methods accommodates a variety of shop conditions. This flexibility allows for more realistic scheduling and better-managed customer delivery dates.

• Graphical presentation of work center loading, with indicators showing shortages / overloads for material, labor hours and pieces produced.
• Drill down from the graphical presentation to detailed work order commitments within a work center.
• Ability to change the work order schedule on a line item basis or to make changes and re-run the schedule.
• Schedules forward and backward projections on a per-job basis.
• Checks existing shop load in conjunction with routers and schedules jobs according to priority, due date, and critical days.
• Responds dynamically to time ticket information and updates the work center load as the graphical screen is 'refreshed'.
• Provides accurate dates based on existing shop load.
• Improves visibility of potential shop overloads.

FEATURES

Forward/Backward Scheduling
Forward scheduling calculates job schedules forward from "today," to project the completion date. Backward scheduling calculates job schedules backward from the due date, to project the start date.

Finite/Infinite Scheduling
Finite: schedules to capacity
Infinite: schedules to start or due date, without regard to existing load, thereby loading the shop.

Flexible Priority Options
Assign each job to one of nine priority levels. Schedules are calculated in consideration of the priority level assigned to each job, with materials committed to the highest priority jobs first.

Global Scheduling
Schedule and reschedule the shop in a minimum amount of time. For each work order, specify the date that the system will schedule the job, and the first possible day that the job can start.

Track Critical Days
Critical days are updated dynamically to track the projected completion date relative to the due date. This is a key indicator of the delinquencies.

Operation Overlap
Allows the movement of completed parts to the next operation prior to completing the entire job quantity, thereby reducing the time when the first 'lots' of production against the job can be shipped to the customer.

"What-if" Scheduling
Allows the scheduling of one or more work orders at any time, on top of the existing schedule. This provides a view of the potential impact on the existing shop schedule, showing anticipated overloads or display.

INTERFACES

• Job cost
• Quoting and estimating
• Inventory / purchases

REPORTS

• Work center dispatch report
• Work order schedule status report
• Projected overdue report
• Capacity / loading report
• Work center backlog report
• Work day exceptions list

INQUIRIES

• Graphical work center review of loading
• Drill down to work order schedule status inquiry
• Modify the work order schedule
• Work order schedule inquiry
• Work center backlog inquiry

Bar Code and Data Collection

The Bar Code Labor Reporting module greatly enhances the time ticket collection process in Job Cost. Implementing the bar code data collection module improves data accuracy and reduces the time required to post labor to jobs. Immediate status of any job is available at a keystroke, improving shop floor control and customer satisfaction.

BENEFITS

• Reduces errors caused by hand keyed entry shop floor data.
• Eliminates manual time tickets so no more time is spent on job production.
• Updates critical shop floor data immediately, reducing time spent tracking job status.
• Improves performance, and employees prefer scanning time into the bar code system to handwriting time tickets.
• Handles these transactions:
• Direct labor posted to jobs
• Indirect labor posted to jobs
• Setup labor posted to jobs
• Material issues to jobs
• Material transfers between warehouses
• Purchasing receipts
• Shipment scanning

FEATURES

Fully-integrated System Design
Complete hardware and software compatibility minimizes data handling and communication errors common in stand-alone systems. The software is designed to be transportable between Windows CE compatible devices.

Intelligent Data Collection Stations
The data collection devices communicate with the SQL Server database to verify information as it is collected. For instance, PO numbers are verified and retrieved from the database, eliminating receiving errors such as receipt of the incorrect item.

Bar-Coded Router Sheet
Detailed work order processing information is printed in a bar code format that is scanned on the shop floor to record time against the job. Supplemental bar-coded information can be used for scanning additional operations and work centers.

Data Collection Flexibility
Choose any combination of three methods to record and calculate time: elapsed time, start/stop, and end-to-end. Module parameters provide the options that best fit individual company time tracking requirements.

On-line Updates
The data collection devices verify information as it is entered. Upon completion of a transaction, the data collection device creates a SQL Server transaction. A background stored procedure periodically polls these SQL Server transactions and processes transactions not yet posted to jobs, inventory, purchase receipts, or shipments. Is this an 'on-line' system? - not exactly. The transactions are posted only as often as you set up the stored procedure to review the SQL Server transaction file.

Data Verification
If using the devices recommended for MICROSHOP, the data will be verified prior to writing to the SQL Server Transaction table. The stored procedure performs a second verification prior to posting the transaction to the job, inventory, purchase receipt, or shipment. This provides tremendous flexibility because the final posting of the data is done regardless of how the SQL Server Transaction file was built. For instance, during data conversion, open jobs can be updated with existing transactions by simply writing the appropriate cost transactions to the SQL Server Transaction file and then letting the stored procedure perform edited updates.

INTERFACES

• Job cost
• Inventory
• Purchasing
• Shipping

INQUIRIES

• Unprocessed, rejected transactions
• Transaction audit trails by item, job, operation and date

REPORTS

• Bar code process sheet
• Operations file listing
• Work center file listing
• Employee listing/badges

Quoting and Estimating

Use the Quoting & Estimating module to create simple quotes or detailed estimates. Each quote has customer 'sales' information such as quantities and prices, and a detailed router with the labor and material estimates. Duplication of existing quotes can form the basis of a new quote, or quotes may be entered directly. The cost estimates behind the quote can be pulled from a current or historical quote router, or a work order router. All won and lost quotes are maintained for historical reference. Quotes that are accepted by the customer can be converted to a sales order and a work order without rekeying.

BENEFITS

• Quote delivery as well as price.
• Select from several different options of detail or summary estimating for a quote line.
• Retrieve and modify existing quotes or work orders from similar jobs.
• Create new estimates for labor and material by building routers and material requirements.
• Quote for multiple quantity breaks and amortize setup costs across the order quantity.
• Track quote expirations, store lost quotes, and convert won quotes to sales.
• Quote more accurate delivery dates by scheduling quotes.

FEATURES

Flexible and Easy Quote Entry
Prepare new quotes by building routers and material requirements to estimate labor and material. Quickly create a quote based on similar jobs by importing and then modifying current or historical quotes or work orders. Use a prior customer quote or work order to ensure conformance to the customer's specifications. The 'drag and relate' functionality provides quick lookup of prior quote information by item or by customer.

Easy Delivery of Quotes
As soon as quotes are completed, the quotes can be faxed or e-mailed directly out of MICROSHOP. The format of the quotes is flexible and user defined. If quotes require a management approval prior to release to the customer, the manager can automatically be alerted to new quotes awaiting approval. The approval process could be selective - only quotes over a defined amount need approval, for instance.

Multiple Estimating Methods
Quote estimates are based on a 'quote router' entered by the user or imported from standard routers, open or closed work order routers, or other quote routers. The routers allow calculation of time based on pieces per hour, hours per piece or total hours for the operation.

Build Estimates on History
Use job history to build quotes by estimating labor from routers used on prior quotes or work orders. Estimate material costs from existing bills of materials, or use material requirements from a prior work order. Retrieve routers and modify them for the new job.

Multiple Quantity Breaks
Quote multiple quantities through a "import" command. Automatically recalculate the estimated cost by amortizing the setup cost across the entire quantity. Compute the cost by the number of pieces produced by operation/work center.

Remarks
Store unlimited remarks for the quote header, for each line item, and for each line in the quote router. Attach them to the work order when the quote is won and converted to a sale and a job. If formatted 'remarks' are required, attach a Microsoft Word document to the quote router. Attachments can be any document format - including PDF and CAD drawings. Routers can have unlimited documents attached.

Quote Expiration
"Resell" lines of a quote as long as the quote expiration date has not passed. MICROSHOP keeps the quote open until the expiration date has passed, or it can be closed manually.

"What-if" Scheduling
Quote delivery based on shop load at the time of quote. Schedule a quote without disturbing the existing schedule to determine delivery date, or enter a delivery date to see what conflicts may occur within the existing shop schedule. This feature requires implementation of the Scheduling module.

INTERFACES

• Bill of materials
• Inventory control
• Job cost
• Orders & Invoicing
• Scheduling

REPORTS

• Quote booking report
• Open quote report
• Overdue quotes report
• Quote success report
• Quote listing

INQUIRIES

• Quote inquiry
• Quote cost inquiry
• Quote history inquiry
• Quote cost history inquiry
• Quote schedule inquiry